Assuming both legislative and administrative activity in campaign fund reform still we must not overestimate the value of the probable results. Only a part of the problem of the support of party machinery and party workers will be solved thereby, but at least it may be said that an important contribution toward the ultimate complete solution of the problem will be made. Bribery and corruption will not be done away with by the reform. They are, as we have seen, much too persistent and extended to yield to any single reform effort. Indeed some forms of bribery may be encouraged by the new practice with regard to campaign contributions. Although it may be made impossible to place men under obligations while they are candidates it will still be possible to buy them, if they are purchasable, after they have been elected. One should remember, however, that if primaries and elections can be purged of corrupt financial influences it is probable that our successful candidates for office will be less open to venal influence than those who win out under the present vicious system. Thoroughgoing campaign fund reform will enable candidates to attain office without assuming financial burdens of such a character as to make it difficult for them to act in a perfectly honest and independent manner. By far the worst evil of the present system is the ease with which it enables men otherwise incorruptible to be placed tactfully, subtly, and—as time goes on—always more completely under obligations incompatible with public duty. Finally campaign fund reform will enable parties to become what democratic theory requires them to be, namely honest interpreters of the popular will instead of crooked agents of sinister influence into which they will otherwise degenerate. Taking the most moderate view of the benefits to arise from such reforms, therefore, it would seem a clear duty of all patriotic citizens and statesmen to work first for the publicity of campaign contributions and afterwards for such other restrictions upon their collection and use as experience may suggest. FOOTNOTES: [67] “Present Discontents,” Bohn ed. vol. i, p. 375. [68] _Cf._ Jane Addams, “Democracy and Social Ethics,” ch. vii. [69] _Cf._ “The Rise and Growth of American Politics,” p. 312. [70] _Cf._ “The Rise and Growth of American Politics,” p. 323. He adds that: “No other nation in the world is rich enough for the political experimentation which the United States is carrying on; but when the end crowns the work, its cost may be found to have been small in comparison with the value of the recompense.”